Often, containers are encountered which have, in addition to a screw cap, a seal or film over the opening which is designed to provide security from and/or evidence of tampering, reduce bacterial infection, prevent volatile liquid from evaporating, prevent fluid from leaking out of the container, prevent oxygen or other contaminants from entering the container, or otherwise protect the product. Commonly these include sealed containers for medicine, glue and the like where a plastic container top is actually sealed closed during the molding process. Other examples include containers which contain tablets, dry ingredients, oil, or the like, where a foil or plastic film is sealed across the top of the container after the contents have been placed inside. The seals are often welded to the container to cover the opening of the container. The seal can also be film-reinforced paper. In a pour spout type container it is sometimes desirable to place a seal somewhere axially along the pour spout lumen or passageway, such as across a dispensing opening in the paperboard which forms the carton, with the opening being aligned with the pour spout lumen. These seals must be punctured or ruptured to gain access to the contents of the container.
The film-reinforced paper passing through and below the welded-on spout, or the film membrane running within the spout must be cut open or torn open towards the opening or pressed away from the opening so a fluid passage is defined whereby the fluid or the pourable material may be poured or shaken out of the container through the spout. Manual removal of the seal can be cumbersome, annoying and, in some cases, not possible. If a user has impaired finger dexterity or large fingers, such seal removal can be difficult if not impossible.
Accordingly, the art contains several designs which are intended to open these seals by puncturing or tearing the seal.
One form of such designs includes a sleeve arranged within the spout which on rotating a screw-on cap causes a lower edge of the device to move toward the seal. The lower edge of the sleeve is equipped with cutting or tearing teeth which will cut or tear the seal. These allow for forced screwing of the cap onto the container to allow the saw edge to break the seal. Such seal openers however do not function satisfactorily. The openings through the seal are often are not cut cleanly from the film or the film membrane, but rather the sleeve simply presses a piece of film out of the seal The remaining edge is frayed and thus may have shreds of paper or film projecting into the passage. These shreds often project downwards into the container. On dispensing of the product, the shreds may block or impede the path of the outflowing product. This problem is exacerbated in large packages which may have large and strong seals. In some seals, particularly large seals, the seal may flex under the influence of the cutter and impede the cutting action of the remainder of the seal. While the art has suggested pre-weakening such seals at selected locations in order to expedite the seal cutting or tearing process, such suggestions are expensive and may require expensive installations and handling during the production process. Even then, the devices which are intended to open a seal by cutting with teeth can remain inefficient and ineffective. Still further, if a consumer is required to remove a cap from a container and then manipulate that cap in order to break a seal, the design will be disadvantaged. The consumer may drop the cap, or become annoyed by the extra steps associated with opening a container or the like. The product can be spilled after the seal is broken and before the main cap is returned to its proper position. This will present further drawbacks to such a seal-breaker design. Still further, during this seal-breaking operation, the user may come into contact with the product, which may be undesirable either from the user's standpoint, or from a potential of contaminating the product.
Other designs rely on a piercing member which is located on the top of the cap. In such designs, the cap is removed from the container, inverted 180 degrees and then a piercing member is pressed onto the seal to effect rupture. Still other devices such as a “can opener” or “spike” are available which are separate from the cap and which can be used to open these sealed containers. Even if the piercing element is attached to the cap in a manner which does not required inversion of the cap, the designs presently known to the inventor have many drawbacks These devices are often cumbersome and require a great degree of manual dexterity. Many are not operable by those who cannot provide enough pressure to cause the rupture of the seal or film. Still further, if the puncturing device is small, it may be difficult to dispense the contents from the container. If the puncturing device is large, the act of puncturing the seal may cause pieces of the seal to break off and drop into the container or drop into the liquid as it is being dispensed from the container.
Still further, with all the above-discussed designs, there are elements that once used to open the seal are superfluous to the continued operation and functioning of the closure member. As such, these elements are, in essence, in the way and can become a source of problems.
Therefore, there is a need for a seal opening device that is easy to use and is effective and which can be removed and discarded after use.